Well, last night’s episode was quite underwhelming and the show turned out to be an above-average soap rather than the excellent humanistic soap hinted at by the pilot. Another Studio 60 unfortunately.
Still recommend the hell out of the pilot.
Episode 2 was a sleeper for me, sorta glad its over before it could get worse. :|
I laughed.
Yeah I don’t think I made it more than 15 minutes into episode 2 before the sappiness made me too bored and ill to continue.
Should’ve known by all the drawn out musical scenes in the pilot that this wasn’t gonna get better.
Eh… I thought the second episode was setting up even more conflicts really well. It’s a shame this won’t continue.
I bet it would’ve done much better on cable.
Well Damn.
I really don’t get modern TV economics. Is it really cheaper for a network to not air something they’ve already sunk costs into (most shows are several episodes ahead of the current episode shown)? It’s always seemed to me that economically it would make sense to actually show them.
Not that US network tv really makes much sense anyway . . .
Next you’ll suggest that they could test pilots with willing audiences on the internet who will gladly watch something for free instead paying focus groups.
It’s an opportunity cost, or at least a perceived one. If a show is truly so abysmally rated that they can get more ad revenue for a rerun of an existing popular show, then it makes sense to do that.
The true brilliance of the show was in production and tone, I think. The writing and performances were good, but it was the former that made it stand out to me.
There were hints of silly soap drama flecked throughout, which I don’t think served it well - but probably the only chance this show might have had with a proper opening.
The one thing that really kicked me, however, was the pace. Everything unfolded so much more quickly than I’m used to with serial dramas. I can’t imagine where they might have ended up after a full season. Maybe that was really just the scene-setting, but it had momentum.
I’m sorry to see it sunk by the likes of Dancing With the Stars.
I don’t think it was. I just don’t think the show was working for a lot of people.
I’m pretty sure it was a combo. DWtS is insanely popular right now. It’s basically the show to beat. Up against a show that has a premise that doesn’t resonate with the audience and you have a formula for a ratings beatdown.
I think the premise was ok but the lead actor was just awful. He had no conviction, he was just a pushover who decided he was going to fix his cons by, what? Conning other people? Yeah, that makes sense. And if he was capable of making the money back legitimately, why the fuck is he conning people in the first place? And why should I believe he’s not just going to change his mind when - oh, boo hoo - things get rough again? The whole setup made no sense and the acting was weak aside from the two fathers.
In summary: I want my hour back.
If you want some more of that, I suggest checking out Being Erica, a Canadian show. It’s not exactly what I’d call a soap, but it is on Soapnet for some reason, which really is quite misleading because it’s such a great show with much better writing than most of the stuff found on there. You can find it on Hulu. Someone I know described it as Sex & The City meets Quantum Leap, although I don’t really see it that way.
I don’t think anybody knew about it.
My girlfriend had actually mentioned the premise a while before, but had apparently not heard anything on it since. Only when I was reading about it in the pleas to save it before the second episode did I realize it was that show.
I loved the billboards I saw around with two different pix of two different naked girls on a bed behind who I image is the lead actor.
But isn’t it on Monday night?
Monday Night Football FTW.
Zen, as has been noted previously, the viewership numbers for both episodes of the show dropped every quarter hour. Which means that even the people who watched it were steadily drifting away from it. That’s a really bad sign. It’s one thing to not have an audience, maybe marketing or word of mouth can improve that. It’s another to not be able to hold the interest of what little audience you’ve got.
They cancelled Police Squad! because the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it.
I can’t speak for why it didn’t catch people - just that it almost completely slipped my radar in two episodes.
damn, I was gonna be in for the sensual massage
There were some great looking people on this show. Sarah Jones in particular…